(New Words to an Old Air.)
WITH sweet Regret -(the dearest thing that Yesterday has left us)-We often turn our homeless eyes to scenes whence Fate has reft us.
Here sitting by a fading flame,wild waifs of song remind me Of Annie with her gentle ways,the Girl I left behind me.
I stood beside the surging sea,with lips of silent passion -I faced you by the surging sea,O brows of mild repression!
I never said -my darling,stay!-the moments seemed to bind me To something stifling all my words for the Girl I left behind me.
The pathos worn by common things -by every wayside flower,Or Autumn leaf on lonely winds,revives the parting hour.
Ye swooning thoughts without a voice -ye tears which rose to blind me,Why did she fade into the Dark,the Girl I left behind me.
At night they always come to me,the tender and true-hearted;And in my dreams we join again the hands which now are parted;And,looking through the gates of Sleep,the pleasant Moon doth find me For ever wandering with my Love,the Girl I left behind me.
You know my life is incomplete,O far-off faint Ideal!
When shall I reach you from a depth of darkness which is real?
So I may mingle,soul in soul,with her that Heaven assigned me;So she may lean upon my love,the Girl I left behind me.
